This invention relates to an inserter. Such apparatuses are known from practice and are typically used in mailrooms where large numbers of documents or sets of documents are each to be inserted in an envelope in order to send these documents to addressees.
However, also in small organizations that send relatively small numbers of documents, and where the documents to be sent are for a considerable part processed by hand also when being prepared prior to insertion, mechanized insertion could lead to considerable saving of labor. To be considered here are, for instance, medical practices, workshops and club administrations, as well as service companies taking care of sending smaller mailings for third parties. Accordingly, there is a need for inserters that are compact enough and simple enough to be attractive in cost price and complexity of operation for applications on a smaller scale than existing inserters.
Because of the contemplated compact structure of such inserters, there is relatively little space for the envelope hopper. In addition, a stack of envelopes, in particular in comparison with a stack of an equal number of unfolded documents, has a relatively large size. Hence, the number of envelopes that can be loaded into the envelope holder of a compact inserter is rather limited. As a consequence, the inserter will have to be loaded relatively often. Further, in the use of such compact inserters, a relatively large proportion of the documents to be processed consists of “daily mail”, i.e. sets of documents that are manually assembled and per set are manually placed in the inserter. For this reason it is desirable that the inserter can be easily operated by a user seated at a workplace, for instance in that documents can be inputted from the front side and mail items come out of the machine at the front side. On the other hand, it is advantageous for a compact structure of the apparatus if the envelopes are loaded from the rear side, because the provisions for the supply of documents and the exit of mail items already occupy space at the front. Precisely with a view to compact inserters, however, loading envelopes from the rear side is disadvantageous since this needs to be done relatively often because of the relatively small capacity of the envelope holder.